Friday, June 24, 2011

100 Things I Love About TV

It's taken me a while, but I've finally compiled a list a la Siskoid's.

1. Andy Griffith and Don Knotts: Greatest Comedy Team of All Time
2. Falling in love with Elinor Donahue on Father Knows Best (then realizing she’d also dated Andy Taylor).
3. The comfort of watching any family in a ‘60s sitcom (eg Hazel, My Three Sons, etc.)
4. The opening credits to I Dream of Jeannie.
5. Fred Sanford vs. Aunt Esther.
6. Vincent Price’s terrorizing the Brady boys in Hawaii.
7. The “Ring My Bell” skit on The Carol Burnett Show.
8. The Ministry of Silly Walks.
9. The Fonz.
10. Alex P Keaton

11. Bill Cosby’s finally getting the perfect showcase for his comedy in The Cosby Show.
12. Bob Newhart doing anything.
13. Lilith on Cheers.
14. “This is the theme to Garry’s show, the theme to Garry’s show. Garry called me up and asked if I would write his theme song.”
15. David Schwimmer’s complete willingness to make a jackass of himself on Friends. And Ross isn't even my favorite character from that show.
16. “Chicken pot, chicken pot, chicken pot pie!”
17. “No, Matthew. I can definitively state that I am not Doobie Keebler.”
18. Anthony Clark as Boyd Pritchett in Boston Common.
19. Mr. Frickin’ Bean.
20. “Yo-Yo Ma!” “Boutros Boutros-Ghali!”

21. Lt. Jim Dangle.
22. JD and Turk’s bromance.
23. The Legen - wait for it - dary Barney Stinson.
24. Jim’s pranks on Dwight.
25. Knock knock. “Penny.” Knock knock. “Penny.” Knock knock. “Penny.”
26. Watching the credits of The Love Boat to see who the guest-stars were.
27. Noel Crane’s crush on Felicity Porter.
28. Lorelai and Rory Gilmore.
29. That Sandra Oh makes me cry every time her character does.
30. The design of the submarine in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

31. Ron Ely’s intelligent Tarzan.
32. That the most faithful adaptation of Tarzan ever was a Filmation cartoon.
33. The world-building in Land of the Lost.
34. “Daniel Boone was a man. He was a biiiiig man!”
35. “From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli, there was never a leatherneck braver; a Daring Dragoon is he. He’ll halt the bold advance of Napoleon’s attack! There ain’t a French or pirate rogue who don’t…know Jack!”
36. The inventive abandon of Brisco County, Jr.
37. Learning about history from Young Indiana Jones.
38. Adam West’s deadpan.
39. Luke Skywalker as the Joker.
40. The whole DC Timmiverse.

41. The theme to Legion of Super Heroes.
42. The theme to Teen Titans.
43. The General Lee’s jumping creeks and blowing that horn.
44. Boy George’s guest-starring on The A-Team.
45. Adam Ant’s guest-starring on The Equalizer.
46. Noel Crane’s becoming the badass Cool Breeze on The Unit.
47. Jack Bristow’s brutally relentless protection of his daughter in Alias.
48. The DVD cover for Season One of Nikita.
49. The theme to Mission: Impossible.
50. The theme to Hawaii Five-0.

51. Alfred Hitchcock’s opening and closing comments on Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
52. The theme to Perry Mason.
53. Robert Ironside’s fighting crime from a wheelchair.
54. The Barnaby Jones announcer. “Tonight’s episode: ‘To Catch a Dead Man’!”
55. Feeling smugly alternative because I liked Jaclyn Smith better than Farrah Fawcett.
56. Columbo’s turning around at the door and saying, “Oh, just one more thing…”
57. How Magnum PI was totally an homage to film noir.
58. Lee Horseley as both Archie Goodwin on Nero Wolfe and the titular Matt Houston.
59. The way Avery Brooks pronounced “Spenser” in Spenser: For Hire.
60. Rick and AJ Simon. But mainly Rick.

61. Shawn Spencer’s love of The Mentalist.
62. Patrick Jane’s smirk.
63. Daphne and Fred’s relationship in Scooby Doo: Mystery, Inc.
64. That Friday the 13th: The Series was way better than the movies it got its name from.
65. Mulder and Scully’s calling each other by their last names.
66. John Astin as Gomez Addams.
67. Just knowing that Dark Shadows existed.
68. Getting arsonphobia from an episode of Ghost Story. I eventually grew out of it, but that’s some powerful TV. I was freaked out by campfires and birthday candles for a couple of years.
69. The very idea that Aaron Spelling did a show based on Vampire: The Masquerade.
70. Sun and Jin. Also Sawyer.

81. The sound the Six Million Dollar Man made when he used his powers.
82. The heartbreak of Jamie Sommers’ amnesia.
83. David Banner walking down the road to that piano tune at the end of every episode of The Incredible Hulk.
84. Being introduced to “Land of a Thousand Dances” by Misfits of Science.
85. George Reeves’ Clark Kent. An unconvincing disguise, but a hero in his own right.
86. Teri Hatcher’s Lois Lane.
87. Smallville’s using Remy Zero’s “Save Me” as it’s theme song.
88. Roswell’s using Dido’s “Here With Me” as it’s theme song.
89. Seeing Mystery Science Theatre live at Minneapolis’ Uptown Theater in 1992.
90. The vehicles of Ark II (including the jet pack).

91. “Five hundred years into the future she will enter a world where machines rule the earth. Mankind has been driven underground.”
92. Tom Baker’s running around the universe offering everyone Jelly Babies.
93. The Clone Wars’ heroic rescue of the entire Star Wars franchise.
94. Hawk from Buck Rogers.
95. Original Cylons
96. Kirk’s libido.
97. Picard’s voice.
98. Worf’s scowl.
99. The concept of Star Trek: Enterprise.
100. “Our love for him now ain’t hard to explain. The Hero of Canton, the man they call Jayne.”

12 comments:

i get down on one knee to this great list and truly different perceptive of references. not just tv show titles, real reasons... i miss the great fun brisco county jr. and the x-files by the last names, i think how it be weird to call them fox and danna....

16. An ex-manager and I sing this to each other every time we see each other!!63. I love this show so much. If the same team did a Speed Buggy...*sigh*64. 1,000 times yes.65. To this day I'm still in love Carolyn Jones. 79. I just showed my wife Harry Belafonte singing at Henson's memorial the other night. We both got weepy.89. I'm jealous94. That and "off think" were the best parts of season 2.

Ken, I thought for a second about stating where some of those quotes came from ("chicken pot pie" in particular), but decided, "Nah. If they've seen it, they'll get it." I'm glad now I made that choice. :)

I was telling my friends about the Ring My Bell skit on The Carol Burnett Show. They didn't believe me! Do you know where I can find a clip of this? I have looked all over youtube using all different title combos but have turned up nothing. Any guidance you could offer would be greatly appreciated!

tc: I really wish I knew where to find that clip. I've searched everywhere I know how and though my Google skills are not weak, they've been defeated.

The only thing I haven't done is ordered the DVDs, but I'm afraid that it might not even be there. I'm beginning to suspect that it's a case of whoever owns the rights to the Carol Burnett Show not also owning to the rights to that song.

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About Me

Michael May writes Kill All Monsters, a comic that he and artist Jason Copland created. He also co-hosts a few podcasts including Dragonfly Ripple (about nerd parenting), Mystery Movie Night (a movie review podcast that's also a game), Hellbent for Letterbox (about Westerns in cinema, TV, books, and comics), and Starmageddon (Star Trek and Star Wars).